


Over the Bale for You

by c0cunt



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: (original characters based loosely on distantly related family), Alternate Universe - Farm/Ranch, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gay Disaster Shiro (Voltron), I'm Bad At Tagging, M/M, half a second of slurs being thrown around, hay bale tag, keith's foster family - Freeform, mfe pilots and keith were buddies as teens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-19
Updated: 2018-12-19
Packaged: 2019-09-21 09:39:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17041328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/c0cunt/pseuds/c0cunt
Summary: Shiro meets the last family that raised Keith, and learns about a little bit about the fun things a teenaged Keith used to get up to.





	Over the Bale for You

**Author's Note:**

> so, show of hands, how many of ya'll have ever played hay bale tag?
> 
> ....very few?
> 
> shiro's gonna learn how  
> (loosely based on how my distant cousin taught me how. sans romantic feelings)

Nothing was more priceless than the scene unfolding in front of Shiro's sleep bleary eyes.  Keith was grumbling under his breath as he stomped around with his former foster mom's old Yorkie, Buttercup, halfway over his shoulder as he made breakfast.  The sounds of the Wudin-Chu ranch filtered in through the open windows, unfortunately allowing the humidity of the hot Mississippi morning to already have sweat beading on Shiro's forehead.  He could vaguely hear Maureen cussing up a storm out in the field, followed by the hearty laugh of her husband Buzz (“call me Pawpaw”) as they worked through morning chores.

 

Shiro almost felt guilty about them being up and about, while being allowed to sleep in.  On their first full day there, Shiro had _tried_ to help, only for Pawpaw to frown mightly and clap a strong hand on Shiro's shoulder, and was steered back inside.  “Yer on vacation,” he had gruffed, putting pressure on Shiro's shoulder until he meekly sat down at the dining room table.  Satisfied that Shiro would relax, Pawpaw had nodded and wiped his sweaty face, and ambled back outside. Keith had snickered into his coffee the entire way through that interaction, tapping on Buttercup's nose each time her face moved too close to his plate of pancakes.

 

“Some of the guys caught wind that I'm back here,” Keith grumped, pulling Shiro to the present with an annoyed clatter of plates.  Buttercup hopefully squirmed, almost falling onto the table from Keith's shoulder. “Probably Maureen's doing...They wanna get together, do some dumb shit together.  Probably hay bale tag, if Griffin's got anything to say about it.” Keith sighed as he put a heavy hand over Buttercup's back, preventing her from falling. Still sort of half asleep, Shiro stared blankly at the full plate in front of him as his brain conjured up a younger Keith throwing small bales of hay at other small children.

 

“Hay...Tag?”  Shiro asked, to confirm that he had heard right.  Keith's facial expression didn't change, but an excited, competitive little spark lit up his eyes.

 

“Yeah, hay bale tag.  Griffin used to complain that I had to be cheating, cause he kept falling off like a moron when he'd get tagged.  Ain't no one else's fault that he'd stand so close to edge without moving before getting tagged.” Keith snorted contemptuously, stabbing at his pancakes a little more heatedly than necessary.

 

“...Tag _on top_ of hay bales?”  Shiro asked, bewildered.  Keith nearly dropped his fork as he paused, and apparently came to a realization.  Then he grinned devilishly, and Shiro wasn't sure if he should be excited or worried.

  
  
  
  
  


Worried was apparently the emotion that Shiro should've been that morning.  Not even an hour after breakfast, the house was descended upon by a wild pack of young adults that all had grown up in the area.  Maureen had preemptively armed them the night before, with cheap gallon jugs of tea so sweet that it made Shiro's sweet tooth rotten, and almost a metric ton of pizza rolls to satiate the pack's seemingly unending hunger.  Griffin turned out to be a James, all sharp angles and remarks like Shiro remembered Keith being when they first met. Only, Keith had the benefit of college mellowing those edges: James's had grown even sharper, if the way that the others of the group snapped at him and rolled their eyes.  Ryan Kinkade looked almost bored when James seemed to try riling him up, effortlessly putting the other man in a headlock as he told Shiro to ignore every dumb word out of Griffin's mug. Nadia Rizavi, fondly called Riz, seemed to enjoy egging James on, nearly cackling with every dumb line out of his mouth as she stuffed her face with the burning hot pizza rolls.  Ina Leifsdottir, Lief, also seemed bored by the other two's antics, and Shiro almost felt like he knew which ones Keith was closer to. All of them, though, lit up like kids on Christmas morning when Pawpaw “”””casually”””” mentioned that they had almost a hundred bales of hay in the far paddock.

 

“Are we taggin’ then?”  Riz asked excitedly, already on her feet at the mere idea.  Keith sat up a little straighter, as Griffin bowled past them all towards the back door.

 

“Oh hell yeah we are!  Kogane better not cheat like last time though,” Griffin called over his shoulder, Riz on his heels.  Kinkade sighed as he rolled his eyes, and Leif snorted.

 

“Griffin, last time we did this, it was your dumb ass that slid off the bale and landed on a snake.  Kogane was nowhere _near_ you when it happened.”  Kinkade said flatly, though none of them seemed to hold any sort of reservations about that.  Shiro, however, turned wide eyes to Keith, all reservations as the other four ambled (or raced) ahead.

 

 _“Snakes?_  James fell onto a _snake?”_  Shiro squeaked, imagining a cottonmouth or any of the numerous other dangerous snakes that inhabited the area.  Keith just snorted, an almost fond look on his face as he tugged Shiro to his feet.

 

“Yeah, little rat snake.  Poor thing had been sleeping, before Griffin's ass fell and crushed it.  He was fine, obviously, though Pawpaw banned us from the hay bales for a year.”  Keith said easily, as if they were talking about something like a skinned knee. Shiro had done many things in his life that weren't the safest, but…

 

“Is this really a good idea?”  He asked hesitantly, allowing Keith to pull him along.  Keith smiled at Shiro softly, like he did when they were both just barely waking, and hurried them along a bit faster.

 

“It's pretty darn safe, honestly.  Just gotta keep your balance and wits about you, and you'll do fine,” Keith reassured him, as the right paddock came into view.  The round bales of hay were lined up neatly in rows of around twenty, if Shiro were to take a guess, and already one person was standing tall on top of the nearest bale.  The other three were waiting (almost) patiently as Shiro and Keith approached.

 

“What took y'all so long?  Too busy suckin’ dick down there?”  Griffin asked snidely, immediately getting socked in the leg by Kinkade, who looked disgusted.

 

“The fuck, dude?  Completely uncalled for,” Kinkade snapped, as Griffin nearly toppled from the strength behind the right hook he'd taken.  Riz let out a disgusted sound as she practically bounded up the nearest bale of hay, fast as lightning, with Leif right on her heels.  Shiro quickly snagged Keith's hand, stopping him from attempting to murder the asshole immediately.

 

“Show me how to get up there so I can kick his ass,” Shiro said, already planning on making Griffin's next fall look like an accident.  Each bale was taller than Shiro, and even if they looked solid...There had to be some sort of trick to it.

 

“Here, watch,” Keith said, pulling Shiro over to the space between two bales.  “There's a few different ways you can get up here, like this.” Keith demonstrated, showing Shiro where the cord that held the bale together blended in.  With a firm grip on the cord, Keith climbed up, as if he were taking a staircase two steps at a time, and just so happened to end up on top of a bale of hay.

 

“That's the way Maureen showed me how to get up when I was younger, but you can figure your own way up however is best for you.  But you wanna get up between two of em, just in case you start to fall, y'know?” Keith added, as he slid back down, heedless of the straw that he dragged down with him.  Shiro almost wanted to laugh at the bits now stuck in Keith's clothes and hair, before he caught sight of Kinkade powering his way up between the next two bales as if he were wall jumping.

 

“Wanna give it a shot?”  Keith asked after a pause, completely ignoring the shouts coming from above them as Griffin was apparently knocked down between two bales.  Well deserved, in Shiro's humble opinion. With a determined nod, Shiro reached up to hold the bale's cord like Keith had, testing his grip.  Deemed solid enough, Shiro heaved himself up, and stepped...Only for his foot to slide back down, dragging a ton of hay down with it.

 

“Here, you gotta sorta dig your toe in,” Keith mumbled, standing next to Shiro and demonstrating again on the bale opposite his.  Keith stood there for a moment, supported by the hay and his one-handed grip on the bale cord. Shiro was torn between being completely distracted by Keith's strength, and his...Stupid desire to impress.  He turned back to the hay, and readjusted his grip. Toe dug solidly in, pull...And he was halfway up a bale of hay. A second, skidding foot up, and he was nearly on top, hunched over the bale's cord awkwardly in a half crawl.

 

“Nice, I knew you could do it,” Keith praised, easily leaping the five foot gap between hay bales as if it were a small puddle.  Nervously, Shiro shuffled more solidly onto the hay before standing fully, testing his balance. It was basically like standing on a dried field of grass, with hard packed dirt underneath.  Somewhere further along the rolls of hay, Griffin let out a wheezing shout as Kinkade knocked him down, sliding halfway down between two hays. Shiro almost winced sympathetically.

 

“Here, try getting from this one to the next,” Keith urged, pointing to the next bale over.  “You don't wanna get too far down the round side, or you'll fall down. Kinda gotta like...Not jog, but faster than a walk?”  Keith furrowed his brows, obviously not sure how to explain, before shrugging and demonstrating. Again, Shiro was struck by how utterly _natural_ Keith moved, as if he were raised on top of these hay bales.  Keith went three bales down, before returning to Shiro's side, nonchalant as if he had gone from one end of their kitchen and back.

 

“Jesus Christ,” Shiro wheezed under his breath, edging the tiniest bit towards the sloping side of the bale.

 

“Uh, hang on, let's go this way instead  The sides are a bit more tricky…” Keith trailed off as he maneuvered the two of them, stepping around Shiro easily and turning the other man to face the blunt side of the next bale in the row.  “It's basically like jumping over a long puddle, you can do this,” Keith reassured, giving Shiro a pat on the shoulder and a slight nudge in the right direction.

 

Shiro tentatively took another step forward, eyeing the gap between the cut edges of the bales.  The gaps between the blunt sides were a bit smaller than the rounded sides...Even as Shiro added a little more speed, eyes trained on where he would be jumping, all his mind could conjure up were the potential injuries from a bad landing, or worse.  A deep breath, one more step, and Shiro was airborne for a moment, stomach still stuck on the edge of the first hay bale. He landed hard, both feet solidly on the next bale, and distantly Shiro could hear Keith cheering for him over the noises of the four other people further along the hay.

 

“That was good!”  Keith praised, and Shiro turned back just in time to watch his boyfriend jump a square pattern.  “Just gotta keep your momentum going, otherwise you'll be tagged immediately,” he muttered, eyes flicking to where Riz tagged Griffin hard from behind, nearly knocking him off the hay again.

 

“You weren't even it!” Griffin wheezed as Riz darted away with a laugh.  Keith's eyes suddenly lit up, and he turned back to Shiro with a mischievous smile tugging at his lips.

 

“If you can catch me Shiro...Well, I'll make it worth your while,” Keith said slowly, before biting his lip suggestively.  And maybe it was Shiro's imagination going wild with potential, but that definitely lit a fire under his ass, as Keith hurled himself down the row of hay bales with barely a backwards glance.  Shiro let out an almost whine as he shuffled closer to the bale's edge, and threw himself over, determined to catch his boyfriend.

**Author's Note:**

> s8 was a mistake


End file.
